Kangana faces Congress fire on PoK barb

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut on Monday came under a stinging attack from the Congress over her "Mumbai-PoK" remarks and leaving the city for her home state without giving information about drugs to government agencies.

IMAGE: Kangana Ranaut on her arrival at Mohali International Airport. Photograph: PTI Photo

Mumbai is "pride" of Maharashtra and India and to demean thecity by likening it to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is "blasphemy", said All-India Congress Committee secretary Ashish Dua without naming Ranaut, who is already facing fire from the party's ally, the Shiv Sena.

Taking to Twitter a day after Ranaut met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan over partial razing of her office by the Mumbai civic body last week, Dua also said the governor's office is "not for politics".

"#Mumbai is pride of #Maharashtra & entire India. This is a city which has realised dreams of millions without prejudice or discrimination. To demean it by comparing with PoK is blasphemy. Guv office is not for politics," Dua tweeted.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party should refrain from "dividing citizens on the basis of region".

Ranaut had said she met Koshyari to apprise him about "injustice" done to her.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant hit out at the actress for leaving Mumbai for her home state Himachal Pradesh without giving information about drugs to government agencies.

"@KanganaTeam has returned to HP. Really surprised! What abt her knowledge of drug mafia and bollywood connection? Wasn't it her duty to give information she has to NCB?

"Isn't it a crime to withhold information about a crime under IPC 202 & 176 also in ndps act? Or was it a hoax?" Sawant asked on Twitter.

The Congress is one of the constituents of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government -- the other being the Nationalist Congress Party.

Earlier in the day, the star, before leaving for Himachal Pradesh, reiterated her PoK barb, which had riled the Sena and other members of the MVA.

Ranaut has tweeted that she has been terrorised with "constant attacks and abuses" and that her analogy comparing the Maharashtra capital with PoK was "bang on".

The Sena and Ranaut have been at loggerheads ever since the actress compared Mumbai to PoK after Sena MP Sanjay Raut asked her not to return to Mumbai.

Raut had targeted Ranaut after the latter expressed her distrust in the Mumbai Police in view of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.